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The Social Origins of the 1910 Revolution in Chihuahua

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Mark Wasserman
Mark Wasserman*
Affiliation:
Douglass College, Rutgers University
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The history of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 has suffered from the emphasis placed upon personalities and, as a result, critical political, economic, and social issues have been incompletely studied. In examining the causes of the 1910 Revolution in the state of Chihuahua, historians have concentrated their efforts on exposing the political oppression and, to some extent, the economic exploitation exercised by the Terrazas-Creel family. Perhaps more than any other figures of the Díaz era, Luis Terrazas and his son-in-law, Enrique C. Creel, have come to represent in Mexican revolutionary historiography the system of economic and social privilege against which the revolutionaries fought.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , 1980 , pp. 15 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by Latin American Research Review

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Seventh National Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Houston, Texas, November 1977. The author wishes to thank the Department of History of the University of Chicago and the Tinker Foundation for the generous research grants that supported this project. The author also wishes to express his appreciation to Richard Estrada, Friedrich Katz, and John Coatsworth for their helpful comments and advice.

References

Notes

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all newspaper articles (e.g., El Correo) appear on page 1.

1. Several fine studies examine these factors: Francisco R. Almada, La Revolución en el Estado de Chihuahua, 2 vols. (Chihuahua: Biblioteca del Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana, 1964) and Vida, proceso, y muerte de Abraham González (México: Biblioteca del Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana, 1967); William H. Beezley, Insurgent Governor: Abraham González and the Mexican Revolution in Chihuahua (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973); and Michael C. Meyer, Mexican Rebel: Pascual Orozco and the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1915 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967).

2. Mark Wasserman, “Oligarchy and Foreign Enterprise in Porfirian Chihuahua, Mexico, 1876–1911” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1975), pp. 14–153.

3. Mark Wasserman, “Foreign Investment in Mexico, 1876–1910: A Case Study of the Role of Regional Elites,” The Americas (in press).

4. “The Mexican Revolution from the Publication of the Plan of San Luis Potosí, October 6, 1910 to June 7, 1911.” Monograph no. 4, U.S. National Archives, Record Group 76, Records of the United States and Mexican Claims Commission, Suitland, Maryland, pp. 37–38.

5. Wasserman, “Oligarchy,” pp. 14–58.

6. Almada, Revolución, 1:27–36; Francisco R. Almada, Gobernantes de Chihuahua (Chihuahua: Talleres Gráficos del Gobierno del Estado, 1929), pp. 116–18.

7. El Correo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), 31 May 1907.

8. Almada, Revolución, 1:23–24; Chihuahua, México, Periódico Oficial del Estado de Chihuahua, 3 Mar. 1894, p. 1 (hereafter, Periódico Oficial); Chihuahua, México, Secretaría de Gobierno, Sección Estadística, Anuario Estadística del Estado de Chihuahua, 1907 (Chihuahua: Imprenta del Gobierno, 1908), p. 181 (hereafter, Chihuahua, Anuario, with appropriate date).

9. Chihuahua, Anuario, 1907, pp. 181–82; Francisco R. Almada, Diccionario de historia, geografía y biografía chihuahuenses, segunda edición (Chihuahua: Universidad de Chihuahua, Departamento de Investigaciones Sociales, Sección de Historia, n.d.), pp. 322–23.

10. This debate began in El Correo on 9 June 1906 and continued through September. Silvestre Terrazas was a distant relative of Luis Terrazas.

11. El Correo, 16 and 23 March 1907.

12. Ibid., 2 and 30 March 1907.

13. The best account of the Banco Minero affair is that of Robert L. Sandels, “Silvestre Terrazas, the Press, and the Origins of the Revolution in Chihuahua” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, 1967), pp. 136–54; I. J. Bush, Gringo Doctor (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1939), p. 165.

14. El Correo, 20 May 1908, p. 4; 9 and 10 Apr. 1908.

15. Ibid., 25 Nov. 1905; Chihuahua, Ley Reglamentaría para la Organización de los Distritos del Estado (Chihuahua: Imprenta del Gobierno, 1904); El Correo 4 Feb. 1907.

16. See, for example, El Correo, 25 Aug. 1906, p. 2 and 26 May 1908.

17. Meyer, Pascual Orozco, pp. 14–15. Antonio Alderete and others to Governor Luis Terrazas, 18 Aug. 1903, Flores Magón Correspondence, Folder 3B, Silvestre Terrazas Papers, Silvestre Terrazas Collection, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, Calif. (hereafter, STC). El Correo 27 Nov. 1909, p. 4; 11 Aug. 1910, pp. 2–3; 3 Aug. 1909; 28 Jan. 1908; 29 Jan. 1908, p. 2.

18. El Correo, 19 Feb. 1909; 26 Feb. 1909, p. 2; 7 Apr. 1909, p. 2; 29 Apr. 1909; 19 May 1909; 1 Oct. 1909; 2 Dec. 1909; 26 Apr. 1907; 24 Apr. 1909; 27 Nov. 1910, p. 2; 5 Feb. 1909; 1 July 1910, p. 4; 19 May 1910; 23 Nov. 1910; Almada, La Revolución 1:177.

19. El Correo, 19 Oct. 1908; 1 Jan. 1910; 3 and 10 Aug. 1910; 14 May 1909; 5 Oct. 1910, p. 3; 2 Sept. 1910, p. 2; 30 May 1909.

20. Chihuahua, México, Gobernador, Informe leído el 16 de septiembre de 1904 por el Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua C. Enrique C. Creel en la apertura de sesiones ordinarias del XXIV Congreso correspondiente al segundo año de su ejecicio (Chihuahua: Imprenta del Gobierno, 1904), p. 13.

21. El Correo, 23 Nov. 1908, p. 2; 12 Oct. 1904; 5 Mar. 1909; 11 Aug. 1909, p. 2; 14 Aug. 1909; Meyer, Pascual Orozco, p. 17.

22. Francisco R. Almada, Juárez y Terrazas: aclaraciones históricas (México: Libros Mexicanos, 1958), p. 464; Chihuahua, Anuario, 1908, p. 167.

23. Almada, La Revolución 1:81; Sandels, “Silvestre Terrazas,” pp. 164–65.

24. Ibid.

25. El Correo, 5 Sept. 1908, pp. 5–6; 20 Dec. 1905.

26. Bush, Gringo Doctor, pp. 165–66.

27. El Correo, 10 Mar. 1909.

28. Periódico Oficial, 4 Apr. 1909, pp. 2–3. El Correo, 30 and 31 Mar. 1909; 2 Apr. 1909. El Paso Times, 1 Apr. 1909.

29. Meyer, Pascual Orozco, p. 14.

30. Friedrich Katz, “Labor Conditions on Haciendas in Porfirian Mexico: Some Trends and Tendencies,” HAHR 54 (Feb. 1974):1–47; Robert C. West, The Mining Community in Northern New Spain: The Parral Mining District, Ibero-Americana No. 38 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949); Friedrich Katz, ed., La servidumbre agraria en México en la época porfiriana (México: SepSetentas, 1976).

31. Walter E. Weyl, “Labor Conditions in Mexico,” Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 38 (Jan. 1902):1–94; Victor S. Clark, “Mexican Labor in the United States,” Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor 17 (Sept. 1908):466–522.

32. Wasserman, “Oligarchy,” pp. 154–220, provides an economic history of Chihuahua. For a discussion of the effect of boom and bust economic cycles on society see Mancur Olson, “Rapid Economic Growth as a Destabilizing Force,” Journal of Economic History 23 (Dec. 1963):529.

33. Wasserman, “Oligarchy,” pp. 244–51.

34. E. A. H. Tays, “Present Labor Conditions in Mexico,” Engineering and Mining Journal (EMJ) 84 (5 Oct. 1907):620–24.

35. Thomas D. Edwards, U.S. Consul, Ciudad Juárez, to Assistant Secretary of State, 28 Aug. 1908, U.S., National Archives, General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59, Numerical File, 1906–1910, Case no. 13911/83–84; Lewis A. Martin, U.S. Consul, Chihuahua City, to Assistant Secretary of State, 31 Oct. 1908, USNA, RDS, RG 59, Num. File, 1906–1910, Case no. 15600/6.

36. EMJ 83 (2 Feb. 1907):223. Mexican Herald, 9 Aug. 1908, p. 4.

37. Clark, “Mexican Labor,” pp. 466–522.

38. El Colegio de México, Seminario de la Historia Moderna de México, Estadísticas económicas del porfiriato: fuerza de trabajo y actividad económica por sectores (México: El Colegio de México, n.d.), p. 11.

39. Marvin Bernstein, The Mexican Mining Industry, 1890–1950 (New York: State University of New York Press, 1964), pp. 84–91; Howard Ryan, “Selected Aspects of American Activities in Mexico, 1876–1910” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1964), pp. 332–33; Herbert D. Brayer, “The Cananea Incident,” New Mexico Historical Review 13 (Oct. 1938):387–415.

40. El Correo, 27 July 1906; 1 Aug. 1906; 31 July 1906; 4 Aug. 1904, p. 4; 16 Mar. 1907; 5 Sept. 1907, p. 4; 10 Sept. 1907, p. 4. Mexican Herald, 2 Mar. 1907, p. 4; 3 Aug. 1907.

41. El Correo, 10 Dec. 1906; 15, 21, and 28 Oct. 1907. Mexican Herald, 4 Nov. 1907, p. 2; 26 Oct. 1907, p. 5; 7 Nov. 1907, p. 10; 13 Dec. 1907, p. 11; 18 Dec. 1907, p. 11; EMJ 84 (28 Dec. 1907):1237; A. Van Zwaluwenberg, “Mexico,” EMJ 85 (4 Jan. 1908):68–69. Mexican Herald, 14 June 1908, p. 11; 21 Mar. 1908, p. 11; 16 Sept. 1906, p. 4; 2 Mar. 1907, p. 3; 25 Nov. 1907, p. 11; 6 and 13 Jan. 1908; 23 Jan. 1908, p. 5; 27 Aug. 1908, p. 3; 24 Jan. 1908, p. 3. El Correo, 19 Feb. 1907.

42. Flores Magón Folders, Silvestre Terrazas Papers, STC.

43. El Correo, 27 Oct. 1909.

44. Page W. Christiansen, “Pascual Orozco: Mexican Rebel,” New Mexico Historical Review 36 (Apr. 1961):99.

45. El Correo, 24 Dec. 1908, pp. 1 and 4.

46. EMJ 86 (15 Aug. 1908):350; Mexican Herald, 18 Mar. 1908, p. 11.

47. Richard M. Estrada, “Border Revolution: The Mexican Revolution in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso Area, 1906–1911” (M. A. thesis, University of Texas at El Paso, 1975), pp. 78–79; El Paso Times, 24 Apr. 1911.

48. John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), pp. 37–66.

49. The data on small mercantile and industrial firms were compiled from the Chihuahua, Anuario, 1905, p. 38 and 1906, pp. 139, 144–60.

50. Chihuahua, Anuario, 1905, p. 75; 1906, pp. 216–17; 1907, p. 130; 1908, p. 171; 1909 p. 210.

51. Louis M. Buford, “Mormon Colonies in Mexico,” in U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Reports from the Consuls of the United States, no. 190 (July 1896), p. 409; Mexican Herald, 5 Sept. 1907, p. 4 and 7 Aug. 1896, p. 2; B. Carmon Hardy, “Cultural ‘Encystment’ as a Cause of the Mormon Exodus from Mexico,” Pacific Historical Review 34 (Nov. 1965):445–48; Thomas Cottem Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico (Salt Lake City: The Deseret Book Company, 1938), p. 69.

52. U.S., Department of State, Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries during the Year 1902 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903) 1:505–11; U.S., Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufacturers, Commercial Relations of the United States during the Year 1905 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), p. 268.

53. Mexican Mining Journal 8 (Aug. 1909):1.

54. El Correo, 28 Dec. 1907.

55. U.S., Department of Commerce and Labor, Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries during 1909 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911), p. 521 (hereafter, U.S., Commercial Relations, with appropriate date).

56. El Correo, 18 Sept. 1909; Periódico Oficial, 25 July 1909, p. 22 and 23 Jan. 1910, p. 5.

57. Beezley, Abraham González, pp. 16–17.

58. Meyer, Pascual Orozco, pp. 15–18.

59. Sandels, “Silvestre Terrazas,” pp. 75–76; Document entitled “Bienes Pertenecientes al Suscrito en Chihuahua, México,” in the Silvestre Terrazas Papers, STC.

60. Almada, La Revolución 1:153; El Correo, 3 Sept. 1904, p. 3.

61. Meyer, Pascual Orozco, p. 23; Periódico Oficial, 30 May 1909, p. 21; Chihuahua, Anuario, 1907, p. 153.

62. Periódico Oficial, 27 Jan. 1907, pp. 12–13; José María Ponce de Leon and Pedro Alcocer, Jr., Directorio industrial, mercantil, agrícola, y oficial del Estado de Chihuahua, año de 1907 (Chihuahua: Imprenta El Chihuahuense—M. A. Gomez, 1907), p. 30.

63. Almada, La Revolución, 1:153; Chihuahua, Anuario, 1905, p. 41; Chihuahua, Anuario, 1907, pp. 145, 148, 165–73.

64. El Correo, 30 Jan. 1908 and 6 Apr. 1909. Almada, La Revolución 1:153.

65. Robert H. Schmidt, A Geographical Survey of Chihuahua, Southwestern Studies, Mon. no. 37 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1973), pp. 23–25, 31, 47.

66. U.S., Commercial Relations, 1877, pp. 716, 727; U.S., Commercial Relations, 1879 1:427. The Department of State published these volumes of the series. Lewis H. Scott, U.S. Consul, Chihuahua City, to Second Assistant Secretary of State, 10 July 1879, USNA, RDS, RG 59; William H. Beezley, “Opportunity in Porfirian Mexico,” North Dakota Quarterly 40(Spring 1972):33.

67. Mexican Financier (Mexico City), 6 Sept. 1884, p. 327; Periódico Oficial, 4 Dec. 1910, p. 4; Seminario de la Historia Moderna de México, Fuerza de Trabajo, pp. 156–63.

68. Almada, La Revolución, 1:95–96.

69. U.S., Department of State, Reports from the Consuls of the United States, no. 153, p. 200 and no. 166, p. 423; Seminario de la Historia Moderna de México, Fuerza de Trabajo, pp. 156–63.

70. Almada, La Revolución, 1:96–106.

71. U.S., Commercial Relations, 1901, p. 468 and 1902 1:505.

72. Wasserman, “Oligarchy,” pp. 266–71.

73. See John Coatsworth's pioneer study, “Railroads and Concentration of Land Ownership in the Early Porfiriato,” HAHR 54 (Feb. 1974):48–71 for a discussion of the potentially explosive impact of railroad construction.

74. Chihuahua, México, Gobernador, Mensaje del Gobernador (Chihuahua, n.p., 1888).

75. Max L. Moorhead, The Presidio: Bastion of the Spanish Borderlands (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975).

76. William A. DePalo, Jr., “The Establishment of the Nueva Vizcaya Militia during the Administration of Teodoro de Croix, 1776–1783,” New Mexico Historical Review 48 (July 1973):223–50; Ralph A. Smith, “The Fantasy of a Treaty to End Treaties,” Great Plains Journal 12 (Fall 1972):26–51.

77. Smith, “Fantasy,” pp. 43–45.

78. Chihuahua, México, Ley Sobre Medida y Engenación de Terreños Municipales (Chihuahua: Imprenta del Gobierno, 1905).

79. México, Departamento Agrario, Dirección de Terreños Nacionales Diversos, Expediente 37 X 5, Junta Directiva de los Vecinos de Cuchillo Parado to Secretario de Fomento, 10 Jan. 1903, cited in Friedrich Katz, “Peasants in the Mexican Revolution of 1910,” in Joseph Spielburg and Scott Whiteford, eds., Forging Nations: A Comparative View of Rural Ferment and Revolt (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1976), pp. 89–120.

80. El Correo, 1 and 24 July, 1909.

81. México, Departamento Agrario, Dirección de Terreños Nacionales Diversos, Expediente 75–1407, Porfirio Talamantes, as representative of the Inhabitants of Janos, to President Díaz, 22 Aug. 1908, cited in Katz, “Peasants,” p. 99.

82. El Correo, 18 May 1909, p. 2 and 8 June 1909; Armando B. Chávez M., “Diccionario de los Hombres de la Revolución en Chihuahua” (unpublished ms., n.d.), p. 268.

83. Chihuahua, Anuario, 1908, pp. 47–103, lists all of the adjudications of municipal land from 1905 through 1908; Chihuahua, Anuario, 1909, pp. 83–90 covers 1909; Periódico Oficial, 4 Oct. 1906, pp. 21–23 and 9 Apr. 1908, p. 36.

84. Francisco Mendoza, Chihuahua Revolucionario, Opiniones y Comentarios (Ciudad Juárez: Imprenta Fábrica de Sillos de Cama, 1921), pp. 22–23.

85. Reply of Governor Terrazas to the Complaint of the citizens of Bachíniva, Distrito Guerrero, Flores Magón Correspondence, File no. 3B, Silvestre Terrazas Papers, STC.

86. El Correo, 20 Apr. 1910, p. 4; 14 June 1910, p. 4; 17 Mar. 1910; 30 Oct. 1910, p. 3. Periódico Oficial, 21 Apr. 1907, pp. 28–29.

87. El Correo, 19 Aug. 1909, p. 4; 18 Feb. 1910, p. 3.

88. According to the Anuarios, there were forty-five adjudications of municipal land in the fifteen months before the riot.

89. Periódico Oficial, 30 Dec. 1906, pp. 4–6 and 23 July 1908, p. 4.

90. El Correo, 20 Nov. 1909; 13 Oct. 1905; 12 May 1908; 19 Aug. 1909, pp. 2–3; 21 Apr. 1910, p. 3; 23 July 1910; 6, 7, and 8 June 1910; 22 July 1910, p. 4; Periódico Oficial, 13 Aug. 1908, p. 17; 20 Sept. 1908, p. 15; 4 Mar. 1909, p. 23; 13 Jan. 1910, pp. 24–25; 17 Feb. 1910, pp. 15–18.

91. Periódico Oficial, 14 Oct. 1908, p. 5; 15 Mar. 1909, p. 14.